2025 was a year I decided to take my fate into my own hands. In the beginning of the year, I had found stability, finally staying in a city for more than 1 year and developing friends who are down to participate in my shenanigans. It felt like it was the right time to shake things up again.
Ever since I left my job, I’ve had a lot of anxiety about being left behind. It feels like everyone around me is achieving really great things, and I’m so excited for my friends, but I also want to keep up. But this mentality actually meant I was taking a lot of my life for granted: the trips I went on, the friendships I made and strengthened, the relationship that I’ve been relying on for 7 years now. There’s so much for me to be grateful for and so much to catch me if I fall, and for that I’m so thankful.
Even with my newfound role as an “influencer,” I don’t share that often on social media, so this is my stream of consciousness for what happened this year, inspired by Amir and Jaclyn. You’re welcome to read as much or as little as possible, and I encourage you to comment or text me if anything stands out!
overnight trips
run clubs
handmade knits
hikes
In the beginning of the year, I was settling down from a whirlwind of holidays. For the past several years, while friends go home and the city quiets, I’ve stayed in New York City through the holidays. This year was special because it was the first time I was invited to spend Christmas with Ryan’s extended family. Since Ryan’s cousin was in town, we took her around and I felt a bit like a tourist in my own city.
We brought Ryan’s cousin to see Chicago, which was excellent.
Ryan & I celebrated his 28th birthday at the Residence of Mr. Moto
I went on a company-sponsored spa retreat in Governor’s Island. Clay always blurs the line between what’s work-appropriate, and being in a bikini in a sauna with a bunch of my shirtless coworkers definitely toed that line.
QC Spa on Governor’s Island
Back home in Seattle.
I left early from the spa and headed to the airport, where I flew home to Seattle for the first time in a year. I’m not always super comfortable at my parent’s house because I feel like I revert back to the amount of agency I had in high school — I don’t have access to a car and we’re miles away from public transit, going for a run leads to a million questions about where I’m going or when I’m coming back, and I can’t touch the thermostat so I’m freezing my ass off the entire week. I remind myself it’s good to visit, but I can’t stay for more than a few days.
Last year for my birthday, I hosted a sushi making night with a sushi train, so this year I also wanted to do something fun and kitschy. I ended up organizing a murder mystery dinner party with 15 friends. I bought a Hollywood-themed pack I found online, and everyone dressed up and received roles they would play, including their motives, thoughts, and gossip about other characters. In the middle of the party, a “victim” was claimed, and we had to piece together the clues to figure out the murderer.
Ryan & I had a birthday dinner at Tokyo Record Bar
This was a ton of fun and I’m so glad people got into it, but no one guessed the murderer (congrats Brian for getting away with the crime!) To this day some of my friends refer to each other as “Oh you’re Princess Pop!” which is super fun but in hindsight I’d love for my friends to also get to know each other more instead of their characters 😊
Since we stayed in the city for the holidays, Ryan and I went on an anniversary trip in mid-February instead, and this year we decided to go to Mexico City. CDMX was so wonderful; the architecture, greenery, and food blew me away and even the dogs were super well-behaved. We also hired a random guy off Airbnb to take us hiking, which was terrifying but also really fun.
Ryan and I celebrated 6 years of being together at Quintonil, which was probably the most expensive meal I’ve ever had.
During this time I was also getting a lot of joy from running every week from Brian’s run club, consisting of Brian, Karis, Priyansh, and a rotating cast of inconsistent folks. We committed to running a half marathon together in Honolulu in April, and that we’d train together towards it.